


Sparring Partners

by ProtoNeoRomantic



Series: Patch Works [24]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Exes, F/M, Ficlet, Memory Loss, POV Female Character, POV Minor Character, POV Villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 17:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1234180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yet another blow to the head leaves Giles a little at a loss when he runs into an old flame unexpectedly, but when it comes to mind games, you can't keep a good watcher down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sparring Partners

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Who Do You Think You Are?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1235281) by [ProtoNeoRomantic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic). 



  
           He looked excessively shocked to see her, probably because of the conversation he’d been having. She gave him her best sweet-sad-embarrassed smile. One that said, ‘I’m sorry I was such a bitch to you last night but I have too many old feelings to deal with rationally.’ “Sorry to sneak up on you,” she said aloud. “I was just... looking for a few good books.”

“And of all the libraries in all the world,” he said dryly, “you just happened to walk into this one.”

“It is the only one on campus,” Gwendolyn pointed out, truly puzzled.

Rupert seemed puzzled as well. “I feel as though I’m missing something,” he said. “Are you here to investigate me or to replace me?”

“Neither,” Gwendolyn assured him innocently. “I told you last night, I’m not here on any _official_ Council business. I just—”

“Last night?” He asked, more puzzled than ever, then with sudden realization, “Bloody Hell! I’ve got to stop getting hit over the head so much. I never know what the devil is going on.”

“Well, you do have a rather... hands on approach to field work nowadays, don’t you,” Gwendolyn said, leavening her concern with a moderate amount of incomprehension and just a hint of disapproval. “Are you alright?”

“Oh yes, certainly,” he assured her, markedly less hostile now, operating under the assumption that they had already had one appropriate, positive interaction that would justify her feeling welcome in his workplace. “Just... missing a few hours.”

“I see,” she said, holding steady on concern, turning up the disapproval just a little, just enough to make him feel slightly foolish.

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” he said, a little sheepishly, “as I have no idea ...what we have or haven’t discussed.”

“Well you certainly didn’t tell me you felt you were in danger of being investigated and replaced,” she said. “Nor has anyone on the Council, by the way, at least as far as I’m aware.”

“Probably just... paranoia on my part,” he lied, convincingly enough, if she hadn’t known any better. “Kendra... was killed last night, while working temporarily under my direction,” he explained, using the truth as a lie, something he’d always been good at.

“I’m very sorry to hear that,” she said, regretful but not maudlin or excessively shocked, Watcherly, professional. “She... seemed like a fine young lady.” She had to fake being even a little shocked, though the girl’s death was news to her. Whatever else should one expect to happen to a not-quite-yearling Slayer? You might as well be shocked by a veal calf gone to slaughter.

They exchanged a few more appropriate, meaningless words about the brevity and value of human life in general and dear Kendra’s in particular while Gwendolyn was deciding what the content of their previous conversation should have been. “So... er... what exactly does bring you to Sunnydale?” Rupert asked at last.

“Well, there was a teaching position open,” Gwendolyn explained, feigning a slight, girlish embarrassment along with an attempt to cover the same in professional coolness, “and I’ve been on passive tracking and long-term research for ages. I can do that anywhere. With the work being so... vital here, some in the Council thought perhaps you could do with some... unofficial assistance.” She tilted her head just a little, not too much and gave him a very slight smile. “You seemed all in favor of it last night.”

“Yes, I’m sure that will be... most helpful,” Rupert said, though he didn’t sound sure at all. He sounded uneasy, but not nearly uneasy enough to have suspected her true intentions or by whom she had been sent. His was exactly the uneasiness of a forty-seven-year-old man who’s just been told by his ex-fiancé that she’s happy and excited to be working with him and his secret seventeen-year-old lover. Gwendolyn was controlling the situation wonderfully already, if she did say so herself.

Then suddenly, unexpectedly, he brightened. “You’re the new English teacher,” he surmised cheerfully. “Principal Snyder has already threatened to make you librarian you know.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” she assured him truthfully, not at all sure where this was going.

“You may as well know,” he explained, becoming serious again, but still with the appearance of one who is enjoying his own brilliant idea. “That the student body have concocted in their minds a very... unfortunate and unseemly explanation for my association with Miss Summers, which I’m afraid has gained some credence with the faculty and the community at large.”

“Oh, dear,” said Gwendolyn dutifully, wondering what he was up to.

“Yes, well, unfortunately, due to certain unavoidable circumstances, I fear Mr. Snyder is coming to suspect quite a different and more accurate explanation,” he informed her seriously. “You see, contrary to the Council’s previous impression, I’ve recently come to understand that the local officials here in Sunnydale are quite aware of the prevalence of... unnatural forces here. In fact they are actively working to cover it up. And they feel threatened by... outsiders... digging into things. Now, that being the case, the less they know about what Buffy and I are really doing at night, the better.”

“No doubt,” Gwendolyn agreed neutrally. He was really getting excited now, feeling rather clever, displaying the same sort of intensity he used to have when explaining the _real_ motivations behind the Crusades or the _right_ way to tune an electric guitar. He seemed to have forgotten that he didn’t and shouldn’t completely trust her, that they didn’t have exactly the same agenda.

“So,” he concluded triumphantly, “why not let him think that the rumors are true after all?”

“Let him think...” Gwendolyn allowed herself to appear extremely shocked. She _was_ a little puzzled, but only for a moment.

“With you here,” he explained, “I could resign. We wouldn’t lose any access to the library or to the Hellmouth on account of it, and I’d be free to spend more time...working with Buffy. As aggressive as the vampire population has been lately, it may be time to move our... erm headquarters, as it were, to a private residence in any case, for security.”

Naturally, Rupert wanted to resign his faculty position before the proper authorities tumbled to the fact that he was taking an unacceptable interest in the female student body. The problem was how to do so without alerting the Council to the same fact, at least until he did whatever damage control was possible to be done through his good friend on the Inner Council, Phillip Robson. Rupert went on enthusiastically, explaining that his recent and repeated head injuries would make a plausible though not actually to be believed excuse for his resignation, making any serious investigation of his supposed misconduct highly doubtful. The excuse for the ‘excuse’ that was really the reason would thus conceal the ‘reason’ that was really the excuse, and all with poor Gwendolyn as his unwitting accomplice.

Mrs. Post allowed herself to smile at last, “Rupert,” she said shaking her head, “you are such a Giles.”

 


End file.
